Russia, to a smaller or larger extent, has deliberately challenged the Baltic states on both domestic and international levels since the breakup of the Soviet Union. After Russia began an unannounced war against Ukraine and occupied and annexed Crimea in 2014 in violation of international law, the Western security community conceptualized the Kremlin’s tactics as “hybrid warfare.” While the search for the most accurate phrasing to describe Russia’s current modus operandi is still in progress in the West, the Baltics look at the issue from a much less theoretical and more practical point of view—Russian aggression is a reality and a constant strategic challenge that occasionally features new elements, but whose general content does not change.
A report on hybrid warfare published by the European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE) suggests Russia possesses the following range of hybrid tools that it utilizes against foreign countries: Propaganda; Fake news; Strategic leaks; Funding organizations; Political parties; Organized protest movements; Cyber tools for espionage, attack and/or manipulation; Economic leverage; Proxies and unacknowledged war; and Paramilitary organizations.
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Source: Defeating Disinformation Threats | Foreign Policy Research Institute